Guild website utilities
Guild Hosting Services Guild Hosting is provided by companies that tailored web applications to gamers. Their hosting plans typically offer out of the box functionality with popular functionality as content management, forums, rosters, polls, and image galleries. Some services offer game specific features and DKP. These services range from free typically add support site to ad free service on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly charge. Content Management Systems A CMS is most commonly known as a forum engine, but just a forum is not enough for most guilds anymore. Galleries, news items, managed articles, downloads, uploads, and other utilities are often in high demand. Most CMSs support themes to change how they look and feel to better fit your guild's personality. DragonflyCMS http://Dragonflycms.org DragonflyCMS is similar to phpnuke but offers many performance enhancements and optimizations to make it faster and much more secure. Modules included with the base install are forums, photo gallery, News. You are able to upgrade the News and Forums with pro versions that offer an array of optimizations that will suite any site. Third party modules for WoW include native ports of WoWRoster, ItemStats and Guild Application. Other third party modules include BBCode Hacks. *Technologies: php, mysql *Difficulty: Medium *Flexibility: High Nuke http://phpnuke.org/ http://www.postnuke.com/ There are many flavors of Nuke out there, and I will do my best to link Nuke sites that are popular and stable. I am not as familiar with this system, but I know it is a popular one. I know it supports forums, but I am not sure what else. There are many WoW related modules for the Nuke systems. *Technologies: php, mysql *Difficulty: Medium *Flexibility: High DotNetNuke http://www.dotnetnuke.com/ DotNetNuke (DNN) is an open-source CMS built on the .NET Framework http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Products/WebApplicationFramework/tabid/777/Default.aspx. The portal has its roots on the ASP IBuySpy sample project, which spawned several CMS communities. DNN builds on the ASP.NET framework to allow module development and skin creation. Modules and skins are available both free from the DNN community or for purchase via either Snowcovered or the DNN Marketplace, both DNN module clearinghouses. One of the larger appeals of using DNN is the large number of modules produced by the DNN core team that are included and maintained by core team members http://www.dotnetnuke.com/tabid/824/default.aspx. Modules of interest to WoW guild webmasters include: * Announcements * Blog * Events Calendar * Forums * Wiki * XML/XSLT Module for processing RSS lists The v4.5.x current release of DNN adds AJAX capabilities via ASP.NET AJAX (formerly known as 'Atlas') to allow for more interactive experiences for page browsers, and the ability to do partial rendering, which allows for one module to perform an AJAX refresh without having all modules on a page refresh. *Technologies: .NET (VB.NET or C#), SQL Server (either Express or full version) *Difficulty: Medium *Flexibility: High e107 http://www.e107.org/ e107 has a full offering of forums, a calendar, news, articles, uploads/downloads. It also has a very robust permissions system that will allow tons of flexibility in allowing your guild to contribute things to the website. This is the engine I have chosen for my guild to use. AddOns and Mods are also readily available for this engine, as well as easily developed. *Plugins: http://e107coders.org/ http://e107hacks.org/ *Themes: http://e107styles.org/ http://e107themes.org/ *Technologies: php, mysql *Difficulty: Medium *Flexibility: High Mambo / Joomla http://www.mamboserver.com/ Joomla and Mambo are both built on the same foundation. They are full featured CMS engines. Joomla is a fork in the Mambo development cycle which is arguably the most popular CMS on the internet. There is huge support on the internet for Joomla, and there are hundreds of addons. Integration with armory, EQDKP, and SMF (popular forum software) or PhpBB is a snap. *Technologies: php, mysql *ItemStats Mod http://forums.eqdkp.com/index.php?showtopic=2217&hl=joomla *Difficulty: Medium *Flexibility: High Drupal http://www.drupal.org/ Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. Too many features to list here. Drupal, benefits from a wide range of addon modules. Check website for details. *Technologies: php, mysql *Difficulty: Medium *Flexibility: High Wordpress http://wordpress.org/ A very straight forward tool, this is more intended for blogging, but some people prefer it. It's power comes from the various plug-ins available for the user. There are dozens of themes also available to skin your wordpress site the way you like it. A WoW skin is in the works as of this edit. *Technologies: php, mysql *Difficulty: Simple *Flexibility: Med phpWebSite http://phpwebsite.appstate.edu/ Could someone using this please provide a description? Forums Systems phpBB2 http://www.phpbb.com/ phpBB offers a rock solid forum engine. It has a very large number of users and developers working to improve and modify it. The out of the box features are somewhat limited compared to other CMSs, but news and galleries and other features can be provided if you are willing to install Mods and AddOns for it. phpbbStyles offers special templates for WoW and phpBB. * Technologies: php, mysql * Difficulty: simple * Flexibility: medium vBulletin http://www.vbulletin.com/ More advanced than phpBB this software is not free, but well worth the price if you have some funding available. The most customizable web forums available today includes build in calendars customizable user profiles and themes with built in editor. *Technologies: php, mysql *Difficulty: medium *Flexibility: high *Useful vBulletin Modifications: :*vBadvanced Content Management & Portal System :*gItemStats - World of Warcraft Itemstats :*gWoWChar - World of Warcraft Character Menu :*World of Warcraft Event Calendar Simple Machines http://www.simplemachines.org It's more flexible than phpBB though theming can be a little trickier. No portal system, but a few of the more popular portal systems like Mambo/Joomla, Xoops etc have scripts (bridges) built for you to integrate the forum with the portal. There's also a very simple but effective portal for SMF called TinyPortal (website http://www.tinyportal.net). *Technologies: php, mysql *Difficulty: *Flexibility: *Useful Simple Machines Modifications: :*ItemStats Mod http://mods.simplemachines.org/index.php?mod=247 :*Character Profiles http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=500 Snitz Forums http://forum.snitz.com/default.asp It can be as simple or complicated as you want. Fairly easy to setup, good support and endless add-ons. The add-ons get more complicated but the basic forums are easy. Burning Board http://www.woltlab.de It is a great piece of software and reasonably priced. Web utilities RPG Outfitter http://www.rpgoutfitter.com/ They've got all the usual stuff: recipes, quests, inventory, vault, mail, bank requests. Remote Services (integrating their data into your web site so there's only one log in) is in beta, Character Pics (so you can see your character pic on your profile there) and they're playing around with sigs (you just need to add the image tag in your sig) but they're not customizable, yet. You can use the Uniuploader executable which will keep your character profile up to date automatically. RPGO Character Profiler http://www.rpgoutfitter.com/CharacterProfiler/ RPGO Guild Profiler http://www.rpgoutfitter.com/GuildProfiler/ These RPGO UI Mods are used by several other web utilities for their data collection of characters and guilds. *Technologies: Hosted solution *Difficulty: Simple *Flexibility: Medium WoW Roster http://wowroster.net/ An open source project for guild and character profiling. They have a very active group of developers building both the basic system as well as many Mods and AddOns. They have solutions for Guild Banks, reputation, crafting lists, etc. They use the same UI Mods as RPGO does: CharacterProfiler and GuildProfiler. UniUploader as well as a Java version, jUniUploader, are available for this utility. *Technologies: php, mysql *Difficulty: Medium *Flexibility: High CTProfile http://ctprofiles.net/ Build a roster of your guild characters with all their gear, skills and talents. Also useful to demonstrate specific builds with gear to provide as examples for up and coming guild members. *Technologies: hosted solution *Difficulty: simple *Flexibility: medium Currently unavailable. WoW Companion http://www.wowcompanion.net/ A Java based Character Profiler. Client can be used to sync with their website. Java savvy folks can also install a server on their own machine and run one just for their guild. For the ambitious, you can upload to their website, then consume an XML feed to display on your own site. *Technologies: Java - Hosted solution *Difficulty: Medium *Flexibility: Medium WoW Character Info Generator http://www.mmoguildsites.com/tools/2 A widget allowing players to show detailed information about their characters, using data from World of Warcraft's armory. Your characters stats, talents, professions, gear and pvp stats are all included. The widget is compact and runs from an iframe, making it easy to embed on your website, blog or online profile. *Technologies: iframe *Difficulty: Low *Flexibility: Low EQDKP http://www.eqdkp.com/ A site specialized for tracking DKP for your guild. They have WoW specific data, so you can do quick comparisons of DKP scores based on armor types (cloth/leather/chain/plate). I am using this solution as well. *Technologies: php, mysql *Difficulty: Medium *Flexibility: Medium NDKP http://www.nurfedui.net/ndkp.php Another 0 sum DKP system based on EQDKP but rebuilt for World of Warcraft. The standard install includes everything you will need to get this working in WoW. Includes built in User Interface options that make spending and calculating DKP very easy while in the raid. *Technologies: php, mysql *Difficulty: medium *Flexibility: medium Guild Launch "Rapid Raid" :http://www.guildlaunch.com Rapid Raid is a premium DKP system that is integrated with the Launch guild hosting application. It was designed to speed the import of raid details from any MMORPG and it has the ability to adapt to many popular DKP versions. Rapid Raid also has the option of using a CT_RaidTraker version that imports World Of Warcraft data directly into the Rapid Raid system. Rapid also offer sever levels of integrated raid stats throughout the Guild Hositing App. *Technologies: php, mysql *Difficulty: easy *Flexibility: high RAID UI http://www.raidui.com Not tested. A flexible DKP ingame/website tool GuildTools http://www.curse-gaming.com/mod.php?addid=1899 http://ui.worldofwar.net/ui.php?id=1521 In addition to the bank scaning utility GuildToolS now also allows you to keep track of all the incoming and outgoing mail to/from bank character and scan the guild roster (including levels, ranks, classes, proffessions*, main-alt relations*; * - only if the guild note was filled out in game properly). And can export all that information to the easy to use html or txt files. Note: executable file is required for this application, all the source codes are included in destribution. GTS is now also fully compatible with GuildBankManager (GBM) a php-application that uses MySQL DataBase and able to represent information gathered by GTS in well-organized matter. GTS now provides the utility for direct upload to GBM's DB via executable. Check out GBM at: http://www.curse-gaming.com/en/wow/addons-2904-1-wow-guild-bank-manager.html Item Stats http://itemstats.free.fr This is some php code which you can integrate into your sites to allow you to have mouse-over and item links embedded into your pages. Wow Web Stats http://www.lossendil.com WoW Web Stats lets you generate rich raid statistics from Combat Logs, that you can host on your forum and discuss after the raid for improving fighting techniques and player's specs. Wikis Wiki's are a community collaborative store for information. You can see a large example of one at http://wikipedia.com/. There is a WoW Wiki already in use at http://www.wowwiki.com/. Here are a few utilities you can use to create your own Wiki. Utilities MediaWiki http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki PhpWiki http://phpwiki.sourceforge.net/ Set to go Wikis Wikia http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Wikia Category:Community Guilds Category:Fan Sites